TRAVELING BETWEEN MAPS
OF VOLCANOES AND OVER TIME
Volcanoes are the places where the formation of new land is possible: rising from the mantle, magma crosses the last horizons of the interior of the planet until it comes out on the surface, expanding and solidifying in the form of lava or as pyroclastic deposits that invade the sea or that cover older rocks…
On our planet, man has always been attracted to volcanoes and their manifestations and therefore volcanoes have always been visited, investigated and represented areas, among the first places on Earth to be described and mapped.
This "yearning" for volcanoes is amply testified by the numerous travel reports (since the mid-700th century, at least), by the many artistic illustrations and by the first geological maps that have come down to us from those centuries. Map which, over time, have evolved towards more refined, detailed and information-rich "images", thanks to the great cognitive progress made in over two centuries of development of modern science and technology.
Ours is a short journey through some of these Maps and among the texts of famous writers, poets and travelers who have described, lived and loved volcanoes
Maps of Vesuvius: from lithographs to digital databases.
For a long time oscillating between art and reality - think of the drawings and paintings that tell the story of Vesuvius in activity between the 700th and 800th centuries - the description of the natural phenomena of Vesuvius meets a first synthesis of volcanic geology in the map (1832) of the geologist and mountaineer J. Auldjo illustrating the paths of the lava flows emitted between 1631 and 1831.
A step forward is the map (1891), on topographic map in scale 1:10000 of the Italian Government, by the English doctor J. Johnston-Lavis, accompanied by an explanatory booklet. The Legend on this map first recognizes two key points in Vesuvius' history: the great eruptions of 79 AD and 1631.
The various maps of Vesuvius produced and published during the 900s (editions 1, 2 of the Carta Geologica d'Italia) document a more modern approach, with the representation of both pyroclastic products and lava, distinguished on the basis of stratigraphy, age and composition .
The maps of the 2000s, using much more advanced scientific and technical instruments, represent huge amounts of data that embrace the entire eruptive history of the volcano and its interactions with the surrounding environment.
Map of Johnston Lavis
Vesuvius Sbrana volcanological map
The Evolution of Maps - Geo-thematic maps
On the maps of the volcanic areas, specific information of the territory can be displayed, including non-geological or volcanological ones.
For example, we can represent the effects of past eruptions on urban settlements present at the time. A geo-archaeological map represents a multidisciplinary investigation approach in which history, archeology and volcanology integrate, in order to understand the impacts of volcanic events, to stimulate citizens' knowledge and awareness in active volcanic areas, and to risk mitigation in the context of the current state of these areas, such as Vesuvius and the surrounding area.
The map of the archaeological sites distributed over the Vesuvian territory documents local impacts, ancient landscape and fragments of daily life, revealed by the effects of the Plinian eruption of Somma-Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Another example: monitoring network maps, which show the distribution of instrumental networks measuring seismological, geodetic and geochemical data. Thanks to these tools it is possible to know the state of the volcanic system in real time. The map helps us to place them on the territory and to plan the necessary expansions.
And again, there are vulnerability maps, they are a useful tool for monitoring the territory and for being able to intervene where a risk threshold deemed acceptable is exceeded.
Geoarchaeological map
Monitoring Map
Map of hydrogeological vulnerability
